


Japanese Man Makes Lunch Boxes for His Family, Volume 13

by cloud_dcst (greatcloudninja)



Series: TKS TsukaSen Week [4]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bigotry & Prejudice, Cooking, Discord: The Kingdom of Shipping (Dr. STONE), Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Gay Rights, Inspired by Japan's fight for gay marriage, Japanese Politics, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Non-Binary Namari, Other, Politics, TKS TsukaSen Week - Domestic, TKS TsukaSen Week - Family, TKSevents, Tsukasen, YouTube, tkstsukasenweekjan2021, tsusen, 司千
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29015829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatcloudninja/pseuds/cloud_dcst
Summary: Tsukasa records himself packing bento boxes for Senku and Mirai, but there's always some jerk in the comments section. After one person takes things a little too far, Tsukasa shares a message with his viewers.---Tsukasa had always enjoyed cooking, and it was much easier—and cheaper—for him to maintain the strict dietary needs of a top-tier MMA fighter when he cooked for himself. Those skills had adapted easily to making food for his husband and little sister; and if he was doing it anyway, then why not record himself and see if anyone liked his content? The video editing had taken some trial and error, but he enjoyed the challenge. And people seemed to really enjoy watching him cook!There was just one problem.The comments section.
Relationships: Ishigami Senkuu/Shishiou Tsukasa, Namari/Shishou Mirai
Series: TKS TsukaSen Week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123469
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82
Collections: TsukaSen Week January 2021





	Japanese Man Makes Lunch Boxes for His Family, Volume 13

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for Day 4 of [TKS TsukaSen Week](https://twitter.com/tksDCSTevents)! I used prompt(s) “Family” and “Domestic”!
> 
> This particular fic was heavily inspired by cooking videos on YouTube, especially [Imamu Room](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0BS2lLese-pldAtdOUgsfg) who makes the most delicious-looking "husbentos" I've ever seen. Please check her out and subscribe if you enjoy her work!
> 
> In addition, I make some references to the recent publicly broadcast debates over gay marriage in Japan and the broader fight for LGBTQ rights in the country. This fic is definitely more political than I normally get, so please be aware of the tags and feel free to click away if you're not comfortable.

Tsukasa put the finishing touches on the bento arrangement, then carried it over to the kitchen window to snap some pictures of it in the morning sunlight. The _umeboshi_ , pickled plum, nestled into the bed of white rice seemed to almost sparkle with the drops of pickling liquid that still clung to its surface. The glossy brown gravy on the Hamburg steak drew the eye next, and the _umami_ smell of the gravy made his mouth water. Fresh broccoli and cherry tomatoes filled in the rest of the space in the wooden _bento_ box to make sure every centimeter was packed with tasty and nutritious food. After carefully draping a piece of plastic wrap over the food to protect the lid of the box, he closed it and wrapped it up tight in a colorful cloth dotted with rocket ships and dogs in space suits.

And with that, another week of filming was complete. He returned to the camera and turned it off before turning his attention to cleaning up the mess he’d left in the kitchen. His work surface was always immaculate—the sink and the rest of the countertops, not so much.

“Thanks for lunch, Tsukasa,” Senku called out, walking up behind his husband and picking up the bento to slide it into his backpack. 

A moment later, Mirai came up behind Senku and snatched up the box wrapped in the cherry blossom-patterned cloth. She smiled and leaned up on her tiptoes to give Tsukasa a hug. “Thanks, big brother! I’m so excited to see what you made today!” 

“I hope you like it,” Tsukasa replied with a soft smile. It was the same thing he said every day—Mirai liked the surprise of opening her bento to see what was waiting for her inside, so Tsukasa never told her what he was making for their lunch.

Breakfast was the usual affair; Mirai making herself some toast to carry out the door while Senku sipped a cup of black coffee and ate whatever Tsukasa put in front of him that morning. Once he’d finished eating, he topped off his travel mug of coffee and picked up the backpack he’d set by the door. “I’ll see you after work,” he called out. 

“Have a good day at work today!” Tsukasa called out from the kitchen sink. He dipped his hands in the steaming, soapy water and wiped out the non-stick skillet before rinsing it and setting it into the dish drainer. The rice cooker got much the same treatment; thankfully its inner surface was also non-stick, otherwise Tsukasa knew he’d have to either soak or scrub it to get it properly clean.

By the time the kitchen was sparkling clean, it was a little after 9 in the morning. Tsukasa could sit down and work on video editing for a few hours before he went to the gym. Then after that, he needed to run to the grocery store to get dinner ingredients.

He still had his fights, but they were fewer and farther between now—with Mirai out of the hospital and Senku working for _JAXA,_ they didn’t need his payouts. It was more for fun than anything else. Tsukasa spent more time at the gym helping to train other fighters than he did working on his own training for upcoming bouts. Strange to think about, but a welcome change to his life. 

The Youtube channel had been like that, too. Tsukasa had always enjoyed cooking, and it was much easier—and cheaper—for him to maintain the strict dietary needs of a top-tier MMA fighter when he cooked for himself. Those skills had adapted easily to making food for his husband and little sister; and if he was doing it anyway, then why not record himself and see if anyone liked his content? The video editing had taken some trial and error, but he enjoyed the challenge. And people seemed to really enjoy watching him cook!

There was just one problem.

_The comments section._

Even without the title of the series Tsukasa had chosen _(Japanese Man Makes Box Lunches For His Family,_ with 12 videos in the series to date) there was no mistaking his thick, calloused, and scarred hands for those of a delicate Japanese housewife. He clearly had the hands of a fighter, and people in the comments often asked Tsukasa what he did outside of cooking. _“Are you in the yakuza?”_ and _“Do you do construction?”_ were two of the most common.

 _No and no._ Tsukasa never actually told anyone what he _did_ do, since that got into his personal life in a way he was less than comfortable discussing. 

But those kinds of questions were nothing compared to some of the more… unsavory comments he saw on occasion. Almost invariably from men, probably older, or maybe some younger men who thought they were too good for such “feminine” pursuits. 

_"Why doesn’t your wife cook for you instead?"_ The question popped up over and over again in the comments section on different videos. Sometimes it was worded more kindly, but other times it was… less so. 

From an objective standpoint, Tsukasa could see what people probably thought. He never talked about _who_ he cooked for, other than to say it was his spouse and his little sister. His viewers probably thought the pretty, delicate floral print bento wraps were for his wife, while the colorful space-themed wraps were for his academically-minded sibling. Both Mirai and Senku were slight in stature and ate similar amounts of food, so their lunch boxes were the same size, too.

It didn’t change the fact that every time he saw a comment, he wanted to reach through the screen and throttle the person on the other side for being such a backwards, bigoted idiot. The fight for marriage equality was still going strong in Japan, and despite referring to Senku as his _husband_ in his everyday life, the fact of the matter remained that they weren’t legally married yet. Senku had been added to the Shishiou family registry, so he had all the available legal rights and responsibilities as Tsukasa’s partner… but as far as the prefectural government was concerned, Senku was nothing more nor less than an adopted family member. 

Tsukasa wanted to do more. He and Senku had discussed the possibility of Tsukasa publicly coming out as a gay man, but they had decided to wait until Mirai was out of school in case of any potential bullying that might come her way. She already struggled a little, sometimes, though she was smart as a whip and improving daily; but six years in a coma had caused significant delays in her development that she was still working to overcome. 

So in the meantime, they made anonymous and private donations to their local, prefectural, and national LGBTQ+ support groups. They signed petitions; they live-streamed the government debates on every screen in the house; and Tsukasa recorded himself making bento boxes for his husband and little sister. It was small, but it was something _he_ could do to support equality. Direct action.

* * *

“Big brother?” Mirai spoke up over dinner that night. “I have a question for you.”

“What is it?” Tsukasa asked. Mirai had seemed a little down since coming home after her club meeting that afternoon; she’d gone straight to her bedroom to work on homework and hadn’t emerged until it was time for dinner. Senku was running late that night, so it was just the two of them at the dinner table.

Mirai didn’t seem to know how to start. She bit her lip, poking at her bowl of rice with the tip of her chopsticks. Dinner that night was ginger pork with rice and stir fried vegetables, a common one for their house and normally one of her favorites. “Um… well… How did you first realize that you liked Senku?”

Tsukasa’s eyes widened. “Mirai, are you having feelings for a boy in your school?” he asked quietly. She didn’t respond right away, but the way her eyes shifted… “Not a boy. A girl?”

“Ah… Namari-san actually… isn’t a boy _or_ a girl,” Mirai whispered. “Namari-san was born a girl but they said they feel like they’re somewhere in-between? They wear the boy’s uniforms.” 

Tsukasa had to take a deep breath at this new information. He vaguely remembered hearing about _Namari-san_ before; Mirai was in the art club with them at her school. “So what happened?” Tsukasa prompted gently.

“Well, um… the other day, Namari-san and I were in the club room together, and the other members had to go down the hall to the supply room to get some things, so the two of us were alone… and Namari-san and I were talking about a painting Namari-san was doing, and they said it was… inspired by a person they liked… And when I asked who the person was, they said—that it was someone who had been through a lot, but was always smiling, and that this person’s smile was an inspiration to keep going despite things being hard. And Namari-san is always saying I have a really pretty smile, so…” Mirai trailed off; her cheeks were bright pink, but the embarrassment was obviously tempered by her own young love.

“A-anyway, Namari-san finished the painting today, and it’s actually going up for a contest! And… and Namari-san said that… if their painting wins the contest… they have something they want to tell me.”

Tsukasa couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face at the shy excitement he could see and hear from his sister. It would be difficult, for sure, in the future, if Mirai and this Namari did stay together—but they were still in high school, just feeling things out. There was no need to panic.

“Do you want me to make you a special bento to share with Namari-san?” he offered.

Mirai’s eyes widened at the prospect. “Really? Maybe I could help! I know Namari-san really likes fried chicken and tuna rice balls.”

“Sure thing. I’ll make it extra big, and I’ll cook fried chicken for you two to share. You can help me pack it. How does that sound?”

“That sounds amazing! Oh, would you want to record it for your channel, too? Maybe we could do a special video together…” Mirai poked her fingers together in front of her chest nervously.

“I’d be honored to do a video with you, Mirai.” Tsukasa stood and leaned over to press a kiss to the top of his sister’s head. It was an indulgent move that he used to do all the time when they were younger, but he’d stopped since she had entered high school. She beamed up at him before going back to her dinner with renewed gusto.

Another hour or so later found Senku home, stuffing his face with his own dinner while Tsukasa took a shower and soaked in the bath. When he got out, Senku already had the brush and hair dryer out, and was waiting for him on the couch. Helping Tsukasa to blow dry his hair was almost meditative, in a way; a form of skinship they didn’t often get to do, but which made it all the more precious when they could. 

“I saw volume 13 went up this afternoon,” Senku mused over the sound of the blow dryer. Tsukasa had finished editing that morning’s recording and inserting it into the video with the rest of the week, and it had gone live just before he’d left to go grocery shopping for dinner. “How are the comments looking so far?”

“I haven’t looked yet,” Tsukasa admitted. They had a high-end desktop computer that he used for his recordings and editing, but he did most of his everyday web browsing on his laptop. Senku also had a laptop for work, but for the most part he was glued to his smartphone, while Mirai used a laptop for schoolwork and a tablet for social media.

His laptop was sitting right in front of him on the coffee table, so it was easy to pull it forward and navigate to his Youtube comments. “Hmm… people seem to really like the teriyaki chicken meatballs and the Hamburg steak this week. More questions about my hands… someone wants to know whether I’ve ever cut myself with my knife while recording.”

“Have you?”

“No, not while on camera. I used to cut myself on the knuckles a lot when I was first learning to cook, though.”

“Fair enough.”

Tsukasa’s eyes caught on a long comment and his heart skipped a beat before dropping heavily into his stomach.

_This channel is ridiculous. Why is a man—a strong, capable-looking man—cooking lunch boxes? This is a wife’s job! He is clearly married, you can see his wedding ring. Where is his wife? Is she one of those career-minded types? Why haven’t they started a family yet? It’s great that he takes care of his little sister, but he should be starting his own family and his wife taking her proper place in the household. It’s a disgrace! That’s what this is._

There were already several comments back, shaming the man for his backwards thinking, but Tsukasa could barely focus on them. It was nothing new. The sentiment was one he’d seen hundreds of times before. But most people weren’t so… _blunt_ about it. It was very unusual for a comment in Japanese. The wording was somewhat stilted, too—maybe this wasn’t a Japanese person at all, but someone who wrote the comment in a different language and used an online translator to post it in Tsukasa’s native language. But why go through all that trouble? There were plenty of other comments in English on Tsukasa’s videos, and he could read most of them with no trouble. He even responded in English sometimes. So why translate it at all, unless they wanted to make _sure_ Tsukasa read it…?

“Hey, you alright?” Senku’s voice broke through the thoughts that were whipping around in his mind. Long, lithe fingers worked their way along Tsukasa’s scalp and his whole body sagged as the tension slipped away under Senku’s touch. 

Releasing a heavy sigh, Tsukasa murmured, “Sorry. Just… a stupid comment.”

“Another one? Let me see.” Head still heavy and loose from Senku’s magical fingers, Tsukasa’s reaction time wasn’t quick enough to stop Senku from picking up the laptop and perching it on his knees. After a long moment, he heard a scoff from his husband behind him. “Gee, seems like a guy with way too much free time on his hands.”

“Yeah… I know I shouldn’t let it get to me. But…”

“But…?” 

“Well… I found out tonight Mirai has a crush on someone at school.” Tsukasa glanced up at Senku over his shoulder, finding his husband leaning forward and waiting for him to continue. “Apparently this young person is some form of non-binary or genderfluid, I’m not sure what exactly. But it just… she’s having her first experience with young love, and I want to set a good example for her, you know? And it just reminds me that I’m not— _out_ yet, not publicly.”

“So what are you proposing? Do you want to do some kind of reveal on the channel?”

“I was thinking about it. I have some ideas. Mirai wanted to do a video with me, actually… but is it a bad idea to get her involved?”

“I don’t think it is. I’m sure she already knows about these comments, anyway; she watches your videos every week.”

Tsukasa nodded reluctantly. “Yeah… and it’s important to show her support. She’s been a trooper through everything, I want her to know that I don’t care who she dates as long as she’s happy and safe.”

“Then it sounds like you know exactly what you need to do.” Tsukasa nodded again. He pushed himself to his feet to grab a notebook—he had a menu to plan.

* * *

The chicken wings were bubbling away in the hot oil while Tsukasa prepared the spicy sauce to go on top and Mirai shaped the rice balls that had been filled with tuna and mayonnaise. Tsukasa’s frilly pink apron was on full display, Mirai wearing a matching one in a pale minty green color. “It looks like the chicken is almost done,” Tsukasa replied. “Are you ready for assembly?” 

“Yeah!” The two of them had a large, two-tiered bento to fill today. Tsukasa scooped the chicken wings out of the oil and laid them out on a paper towel to let some of it drain off, before putting them in a bowl and tossing them with the spicy sauce he’d prepared. The wings went down onto a bed of lettuce; fresh, crunchy pickled vegetables and a creamy dipping sauce joined them a moment later. Mirai tucked the rice balls into the bottom half of the bento box with some halved cherry tomatoes tucked into the empty spaces, tiny octopus sausages, and a couple of halved, hard-boiled eggs. Mirai sprinkled sesame seeds right on top of the onigiri for garnish.

“So what do you think? Will Namari-san enjoy this special lunch?” Tsukasa asked his little sister.

“I think Namari-san will like it very much! Thank you, big brother!”

“Oi, oi, you two aren’t going to cook all this delicious-smelling food and then not let me taste any of it, are you?” Senku asked as he walked into the kitchen. Boldly, right in full view of the camera, he picked up one of the leftover chicken wings and bit into it. “Oh… that’s nice. Spicy, but with a hint of sweetness, too. Well done, Tsukasa.” He leaned up on his tiptoes and pressed a sticky kiss to Tsukasa’s cheek before wandering back out of the kitchen. 

Mirai giggled out loud as Tsukasa’s entire face went red. How bold…! “I think your viewers will like that,” she murmured. “You should leave it in.”

“They didn’t see anything past my chest,” Tsukasa grumbled, picking up his hand towel and trying his best to wipe the sauce from his cheek. But… it was enough.

Later that afternoon, Tsukasa got an enthusiastic text from his little sister showing a thoroughly empty bento box. _Namari-san loved the chicken wings and the rice balls! They were very impressed that I helped to cook, and asked if you would make more soon!_

That night, a new video went live on Tsukasa’s channel. _Japanese Man Makes Special Lunch Box for Sister’s First Crush._ The video was prefaced with a short message:

_As you may know, I’ve been making these videos every few weeks for about six months now. Thank you to everyone who has supported my channel up to this point!_

_Japan is in a tumultuous period of civil rights upheavals. LGBTQ+ issues are at the forefront of many lives in our country._

_My own included._

_My family is made up of three people: myself, my little sister, and my partner, who is also a man. We love each other very much. Up to this point, I had chosen to focus only on myself and my food for this channel… but I realize now that it is disingenuous of me not to use my platform to push for something that is so important to my life._

_I hope that you will understand and will continue to support my channel moving forward. If you do not feel you can do so, please un-subscribe now._

_Thank you. I hope you enjoy watching the cooking for this very special video!_

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to join the Dr. Stone shipping server! All ships are welcome!  
> We have lots of events scheduled, RP our fave ships, share headcanons, etc!  
> [Click here to join us!](https://discord.gg/RGy78Kj)


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